Congress will be on vacation for the entire month of August. On vacation from what?! It can’t be from work because in order to take a vacation from work you first have to be doing some work! They have not been doing anything and that is probably why their rating, which is single digit, is at an all-time low. But a small thing like that doesn’t bother them; instead it is hi-ho, hi-ho it’s off to vacation we go.

Or maybe I am being too harsh and speaking without having all of my ducks in a row. Maybe there are those who feel that, even if you never do it, all you need to do to be able to go on vacation from work is to have a job; Congress obviously feels that way.

But I am straying from the text of the intended article before I even write the first word of it. The article that I have in mind and will share with you has to do with the highway bill, the effort to defund Planned Parenthood, and what appears to have become a regularly employed tactic in the Republican strategy to regain the Whitehouse in 2016. Even if this tactic has long been among those in the Republican arsenal, it has been used extensively since the election of President Obama.

As congress prepares to go on vacation – and you already know how I feel about that, they kicked the can down the road by passing a 3-month highway bill. Although they have not passed a long-term bill since 2005 they just could not find time to get that done because they have been too busy for a long time now with other things like considering another vote on repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood. They have also been busy with other stuff like slamming the Obama Administrations Nuclear deal with Iran and working to figure out a strategy as to how they can block it.

Since I have now mentioned the word strategy I will talk about this strategy that is being used by elected Republicans throughout the country that is unworthy of its place in the Party and among conservative Republicans everywhere. It is an underhanded, sleazy and unnecessary tactic that would leave the Republican Party better off if they excised and destroyed it immediately.

The tactic that I am referring to has been used in the past and is still being used in an effort to get Republicans elected over Democrats. And now, it is being used in an effort to defund Planned Parenthood. This tactic has to do with how the Republican Party is going about getting their way with the American people and, thereby, in American politics.

For example, in their effort to assure that as many Republicans as possible will be elected in 2016 Republicans have resorted to working to either obstruct or block the ability to vote of those who statistically normally vote for Democrats. They have chosen to do this instead of taking their message of how they believe the country should be run, which they believe would make it better off now and in the future, to the American people. Perhaps they have chosen this approach because they are concerned that to do things the right way would take too long and would, therefore, put America in imminent danger.

They are doing the same thing where Planned Parenthood is concerned. It is obvious that they are pro-life and there is nothing wrong with that. But instead of taking their message to the American people and working to convince them that abortion should be outlawed in American society, in order to get their way, Republicans have resorted to siding with those who would use underhanded methods and scare tactics.

Those who produced the videos that prompted congress to submit a bill to defund Planned Parenthood are not just trying to prevent Planned Parenthood from assisting in any way with abortions; they are trying to destroy this organization. Allegedly, the people who produced these videos are some of the same people who played a major role in the destruction of ACORN.

Come on Republican Party and Republican leaders, you are better than this. You have entirely too much to offer this country to allow this kind of approach to governance to destroy your Party! America needs you! Sure, it might take longer to get your message across, once again become a worthy opponent to Democrats and make a comeback but you can do it. There is no doubt that you will have to build a bigger and more inclusive tent but you can do that too.

Why don’t you get back to the good old days when you were truly the Grand Ole Party and honestly gave the Democrats a run for their Money? I must admit that back then, Republicans had some real good ideas; some of which were even better than those of Democrats: Republicans, don’t tell any Democrats that I said that.

But those were times when America was really thriving. Sure, we had our spats but everything usually worked out in the best interest of America. So come on Republicans, get rid of this cancerous tactic, get it together and put up your dukes! I think we (Democrats) can take you.

Eulus Dennis

This Post Is Number 100 Among The Articles That Have Been Posted To This Blog Since Its Inception In October 2014. I Wanted It To Be Different And, Thereby, Special So I Decided To Express My Thoughts About Politicians Rather Than To Write An Article On The Usual Day By Day Political Stories That They Generate By What They Do And Say Simply Because They Are Who They Are; Politicians. Following Is That Article.

I am captivated by politics and I admire those who are willing to dedicate their lives to serving their country and its citizenry. But sometimes, especially with what has been happening lately in the political world in our country, the United States of America, I cannot help but to wonder whether if one is a politician for an extended period of time they are introduced to a surreal world that exists on a parallel to the real world.

I wonder if they become so attuned to what it takes to survive as a politician that they begin to lose contact with the real world and become so engrossed in this surreal world that they become lost and many of them cannot find their way back to the real world. Instead, they do what appears to be a confusing, un-choreographed dance among various constituents – like the flying insects that you see on a sunny day dancing outside of your window constantly changing direction indiscriminately in an effort to avoid being consumed by the dragonfly, while trying to assure that they will continue to exist; in other words, continue to be reelected and keep their job.

I do not believe that all of these politicians are doing this with malice. It is just that they have been politicians for so long that they are no longer able to determine the difference between the real world and the surreal world of politics. The fact of the matter is that playing politics has become so much a part of their life that, like a virus, it has invaded parts of their being that they never intended for it to become a part of. Nevertheless, it has affected their thinking and rendered them out of control.

As a result, they are unable to return to the real world unless they are willing to dispense with the playing of politics and to do this is all but impossible for many of them. This surreal world of politics has become their real world. They cannot rid themselves of it because to them it is the only world that exists. And because the real world and this surreal world exist on parallel planes, short of a miracle, they may never find their way back to the real world.

This line of thinking by me may sound strange to many readers of this blog, especially to those who do not follow politics closely. Even those who do track politics and politicians closely might have to strain to see my perspective. I can understand that. I only found myself thinking about it because of my frustration with the way that our politicians deal with America’s everyday problems and how often the media mentions how politicians must consider the political implications of a circumstance before they respond to situations that impact on their constituents.

Why should they have to consider the political implications if they want to do what is best for their country? The first and most obvious reason that pops into my mind is so that they will stand the best chance possible to be reelected. But if they are unwilling to do those things that are in our best interest and the best interest of America in order to position themselves to be reelected, why should we reelect them?

To me this is a classic catch 22. But to politicians, what appears to some to be an apparent no-win situation is simply a dark cloud with a silver lining. And somehow they are usually able to manipulate that cloud until they find the hidden zipper that when unzipped releases all of the goodies that typically tend to get them reelected.   As simplistic as it might sound, politicians should be doing those things that place America and its citizens ahead of their political ambitions without first performing a litmus test to determine how their decisions will impact upon their chances to be reelected. It is likely that I feel this way because I do follow politics closely and have come to believe that dedicated politicians realize that they are in place first and foremost to do whatever is in the best interest of America and its citizens.

I am not unaware that politicians are regularly verbally assaulted and abused by constituents who are on opposite sides of various issues so have different interests and expectations. But this comes with a politician’s job and is a part of any political territory. A polished and well-schooled politician will be able to handle this and still do their job. They will be able to absorb the knee-jerk emotional reactions of their constituents and still make meaningful and reasonable decisions based on the information that they are privy to. They will make these decisions in the best interest of their constituents and America and they will make them without placing their political ambitions ahead of America and her citizens.

While reflecting on these various issues that sometimes divide us, I could not help but to reflect on Senator Bernie Sanders and a situation that he was recently faced with when he was confronted by Black Lives Matter protesters. Senator Sanders was extremely frustrated with having to try to speak over the chanting of these protesters who disagreed with him and, as a result, cancelled a meeting that he had scheduled with them following his speech. There is an old saying that ‘if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.’ My thoughts are that because Senator Sanders is not accustomed to being in the kitchen of presidential candidate politics, he is not accustomed to that level of heat.

Now that he is running for President of the United States of America, he must get accustomed to the heat in that kitchen if he intends to survive. Personally, I think that Senator Sanders believes that all Americans should be treated equally. I like him as a candidate and understand that he is approaching equal treatment from the standpoint of economics, which I see as a reasonable approach although I think that that equal treatment goes beyond economics. Evidently, the people from Black Lives Matter have taken a broader view of how equal treatment should be achieved and have taken issue with Senator Sander’s economic approach to achieve equality for all people.

To Senator Sanders I say, don’t be a quitter, rid yourself of your frustrations and keep pressing forward. Although you might not agree with those from Black Lives Matter or with their approach to resolving the problem, try to see things from their perspective and make sure that they understand yours. You are among those who are in a unique position to have a major impact on what the ultimate outcome of this controversy will be so make your unique position count; don’t throw it away.

Senator Sanders is an example of only one among many politicians who can make a major difference in how we conduct ourselves and move forward as a country. He has proven by his actions that he is a man of principle and is not trapped in this surreal political world. But those politicians who are stuck in that surreal world and have chosen to play politics and pander rather than govern are not going to change the way that they conduct themselves unless we as American voters show them by way of our votes that we expect more of them than we are receiving now.

We must show them that they are not in charge but we are! We must show them that they are in office because of the will of a majority of the American people and not because of a few billionaires and millionaires! Let’s exercise our right to the franchise and show politicians and their billionaire and millionaire friends that their money is not king and that it does not rule!

Since there are many important decisions now pending that we must make as a country we should do everything that we can do as voters to assure that our politicians make those decisions based on all information available to them and on solid standards; not on their personal political ambitions. The best way to assure that we have politicians in place that will do this is for us to vote so let’s be sure to do that. And always remember, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

Eulus Dennis

Is law enforcement around the country struggling to obey the law that they are supposed to be enforcing? Have police officers, who have sworn to ‘serve and protect’ us, and their superiors completely lost their way? Have they become even worse criminals than those who they have berated and hauled off to jail – some of whom are sentenced to life in jail or death, because they are determined to protect their job or a color, which is police blue?

Well, based on what has been happening in police forces around America for far too long now the answer is yes. And I submit that the fact that they are sworn to serve and protect us does make those who violate that oath worse criminals than those whom they arrest if they themselves break the law. At least these criminals accept who they are even though they detest being caught. Crooked District Attorneys and cops pretend to be on the side of the law while doing the same things, or worse, that these criminals do.

I do not want to prejudge the police and District Attorney in Waller County Texas but with all of the strange things that are taking place surrounding the arrest and subsequent death of Ms. Sandra Bland it is hard not to at least be concerned about how law enforcement is handling the situation. What are we doing, America?! And what are all of the decent District Attorneys and cops around the country doing?! Cops obviously are not cowards or they would not be in such a dangerous job! So why are they allowing a few dirty cops to run their police forces?! I don’t get it! And as far as District Attorneys are concerned, I am trying hard to believe that there are less of them who are motivated more by their political ambitions than there are who are motivated by their desire to faithfully serve those whom they are sworn to serve. If I am being naive, I can only hope that I will learn the truth sooner than later.

The freighting thing is that the way that they are handling things in Waller County is not unlike how police departments and District Attorneys throughout the country have handled similar situations! America, wake up! District Attorneys, wake up! Clean police officers, wake up! Let all of us stop being closet cowards and address this problem! And it is a problem even if we do not want to face it!

If you do not think that it is a problem, take a look at the Eric Garner case, the Michael Brown case, the Tamir Rice case and now the Sandra Bland case. It is hard to believe the cops, specifically and law enforcement overall when we look at what is happening around America. The cops and law enforcement deserve to be believed only after that they have proven themselves worthy of being believed.

Look at the homeless woman who was arrested and is now facing a sentence of 25 years to life for picking up a LAPD baton and allegedly facing LAPD officers although she never did anything with it to threaten them. Compare that to how Ms. Sandra Bland, who subsequently died as a result of being pulled over for a minor traffic offence is being characterized in the media as a result of leaks from her autopsy report while the State Trooper who pulled her over, did not follow proper protocol and failed to document things in his report of the stop that might reflect negatively on him. Compare that to the Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice cases and reflect on how that makes you feel as an American about our justice system.

The feudal hierarchy system supposedly ended by the beginning of the 19th century as a result of many revolutions. However; if we look at what is happening right now in the United States of America, it is not hard to understand why many people, especially people of color and young people, still feel that we are living under a feudal system. The rich (the kings) still control everything and determine who will be in power and how the wealth will be distributed. The barons (just beneath the kings), lords (just beneath the barons) and vassals – who are the lowest class, fall in line accordingly. The vassals, which most of us are and who have the least amount of privileges, are at the bottom of the scale and can be treated as those above us see fit.

Unfortunately – in the feudal system, the barons and lords could treat those below them as they saw fit without fear of auspices of the king or fear of reprisal by him if for any reason they mistreated his servants (the vassals). To many Americans, that is exactly how things feel now. We need to correct this problem now! This might take some time but it can be done and I believe that most Americans will understand this and accept it. What I do not believe is that Americans, especially people of color and young people, will wait in perpetuity for this to happen; especially if their continues to be no signs of progress.

Eulus Dennis

The RNC and virtually all Republican Party elected officials are shouting, jumping up-and-down, flailing their arms and doing everything else that they can think of in an effort to get the attention of American voters so that they can tell them that Donald Trump neither represents the thoughts of the Grand Ole Party nor reflects its intentions with regards to immigrants and the overall US immigration policy.

They supposedly were spurred to do this because they are indignant about how Mr. Trump referred to Mexican immigrants and, even more recently, how he referred to Senator John McCain. It seems that they just cannot stomach him abusing people by using these negative and inappropriate ways of referring to them. According to an article in The New York Times titled ‘Donald Trump Says John McCain Is No War Hero, Setting Off Another Storm’, Mr. Trump said; “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

If the Republican Party and its elected officials are claiming that they are piling on Donald Trump and some are saying that his comments make him unfit to be the President of the United States of America and are demanding that, as a result, he withdraw as a candidate for president, I do not buy what they are selling. Where was all of this indignation when Mr. Trump was pushing all of this ‘Birther’ garbage about President Obama, saying that it was highly questionable as to whether he was an American citizen and asking that he show his birth certificate? Where were the Republican statesmen then?

This is definitely not to say that I am calling what they are doing now by attacking Mr. Trump an act of statesmanship but where were they when many highly visible elected Republicans and other Republicans whom many Americans consider to be the face of the Republican Party were totally inappropriately trashing President Obama?! Where were they when these elected officials and other highly visible Republicans were comparing him and the FLOTUS to animals – which some are still doing (e.g. Mayor Patrick Rushing of Airway Heights, Washington)?! Where were they?!

Donald Trump says that they are demanding that he apologize to Senator McCain and withdraw as a candidate for United States President only because he is leading in the polls and they fear that. Because of the way that they reacted to his ‘Birther’ comments and various other inappropriate comments about the president by elected members of their Party, I find what Mr. Trump is selling to be more plausible than what the Republican Party and its elected officials are selling.

Now that Mr. Trump is soaking up all of the national media attention that all of those Republicans who are running for president badly need and is berating them while insulting their intelligence, suddenly, they want to trump ‘The Donald’. But Mr. Trump is having none of it. He may be obnoxious, narcissistic, backbiting and many other adjectives that have a negative connotation but stupid, even if solely as it relates to business acumen, is not among them. The Republican Party played a major role in creating what they now view as an insatiable political monster that threatens to completely devour the positive political image that they worked so hard to create of a bigger-tent Party with a more welcoming attitude toward people of color and women. As a result, they must now either live with it, figure out some way to tame it, or rid themselves of it.

I do not want Mr. Trump to totally destroy the Republican Party because, as I have said before, we need a healthy and vibrant two Party system because that is good for the country. However; I do want the way that he is conducting himself to cause the Republican Party to reflect on how the overall Party operates and compel them to work to make real and meaningful change to their Party and thereby its image.

This way, they will not have to constantly work on image facades to attract people of color and women. Instead, by truly creating a bigger and more inclusive tent all of those who share the Republican view of how America should be run will naturally be drawn to the Republican Party and its message.

I am confident that the Republican Party will be able to address the current problem, fix it and avoid the demise of their Party. My hope is that they will do this sooner than later. But to say that I am not enjoying the current Republican sideshow would make me a liar. Ahhhh…hope and change. It is happening; all of us simply have to keep watching, working and voting.

Eulus Dennis

Once again Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man that congressional Republicans treat as if he is their surrogate President of the United States of America, has spoken about what a great disaster the nuclear deal is that the Obama Administration has agreed to with Iran. He compared the inspection process that the Administration agreed to follow in the event that Iran was suspected cheating to that of law enforcement dealing with drug dealers.

In an interview with ABC News the Prime Minister said “Imagine giving a drug dealer 24 days before you inspect the meth lab he has. That, as I say, is a lot of time to flush a lot of meth down the toilet.” Prime Minister Netanyahu knows that what he implied in this rhetorical statement is disingenuous because he knows that it is not a simple task to hide activities surrounding the enrichment of Uranium; especially with the technology that is available now to detect those activities and evidence of the enriched material.

Based on what happened in the US congress in the past when Republicans allowed Mr. Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of congress even though they knew that it was inappropriate and President Obama objected to it, most if not all of these Republicans will fall in line behind the Prime Minister and support him in his criticism of the Iran nuclear deal. Although it is likely that many Republicans have not yet read the complete deal, not to mention not having thoroughly reviewed it, they are already slamming it as being dangerous to America and the rest of the world and accusing President Obama of being totally irresponsible for agreeing to it. Yet I have not seen one interview where any of them have stated in any reasonable amount of detail what America should do if we choose to scuttle the deal. The only other alternative would be to force Iran to cooperate and that would probably mean America would once again have to become involved in another war in the Middle East.

On the one hand, even those who, like me, believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been extremely overzealous in how he has gone about promulgating his opposition to this nuclear deal, if they tried real hard to see things from his perspective they could understand why he chose to take the approach that he has in an effort to assure that an agreement will not be reached and implemented. It still might be a real stretch but they could get there.

On the other hand, I find it all but unthinkable how far congressional Republicans have already gone to block this deal; remember the open letter to Iran signed by 47 Republican senators?, and they still appear to be willing to go further. While there is at least some room to see things from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s perspective, there is no room whatsoever to see them from the perspective of 47 US Republican senators – or those who line up in support of them, who were willing to undermine the President of the United States in the eyes of a foreign country in order to block the US from reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran.

I cannot mention South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and South Carolina State Representative Jenny Horne enough when talking about shining examples that all of our politicians would do well to follow. Even though I disagree with these women on many issues and do not agree with many of the policies that they espouse, I cannot help but to be encouraged and believe that they will always be willing to hold reasonable discourse on issues, debate them based on their merit and come to reasonable resolutions on them that may not always be the resolution that they prefer. This is what Americans want and should demand from our politicians; that they be willing to come together sit down and reasonably discuss and resolve issues we are faced with without having the playing of politics always foremost in their minds.

Whether we like or hate this president or no matter where we fall along the way on that spectrum, he is still the President of the United States of America. He is the president of all Americans. I believe that he is doing everything that he can possibly do to accomplish those things that he perceives to be in the best interest of our country.

There are Americans who for various reasons do not believe as I do that President Obama is doing all that he can do in our country’s best interest. There are also those who for political gains have staked out territory among the nonbelievers although their true feelings are that they believe that the thoughts and rhetoric put forward by these people are nonsensical. That notwithstanding, they flip-flop back and forth between sides in their endless effort to maintain a political foothold that might help toward assuring that they will be reelected.

It is past time for politicians to get back to the job of governance. It is also past time for those of us who find it too inconvenient to stay informed and get out and vote to stay informed and get out and vote. Let’s participate in our democracy, which is the kind of democracy that is envied and sought after by many people around the world because of the privileges that it affords us.

Eulus Dennis